Andi Towns, owner of Heritage Stone Paving & Landscaping, has dug a path all the way to both the Silver Finalist and Gold Winner Award of the Canadian Home Builders Association, Central Interior (CHBCI) 13th Annual 2018 Keystone Awards, Best Landscaping, New or Renovated.
The awards recognize and honour excellence in the home building sector in central British Columbia. Accepting the award at the Feb. 3 gala in Kamloops, Towns was humble.
“I’ve never won a landscaping award before and wow, to be amongst the best of the best is fantastic,” he said.
Immigrating more than a decade ago from the U.K., uprooting his family and bringing his already honed stone paving and landscaping knowledge and experience to the North Okanagan, Towns’ unwavering commitment to the 2018 Keystone recipient project spanned two seasons, from July 2016 to September 2017.
Coldstream homeowner and project partner Andrea Newton said Towns’ work on her home’s landscaping surpassed the three main Keystone criteria: success of landscaping as a complement to the development; selection and placement of materials in the landscaping; sensitivity to inherent environmental and climatic conditions.
“When I learned Andi used to teach sailing on Beneteau sailboats and we used to live on a 35-foot Beneteau sailboat I knew then we were going to find the groove on this project,” said Newton. “However, I also considered it was a daunting endeavor – a steep banked, narrow property with rocks, boulders, one lone tree, abundant noxious plants, wicked bull thistles and deer cactus and with this also being our first ever land home, it needed the vision and magic touch from Andi and his second-in-charge, Tulsa, to complete a landscaping make-over extraordinaire.
“I appreciate that individuals who work hard in the community and have solid reputations are celebrated.”
For Newton, having the project recognized by the Keystone Awards, is a huge honour but it has been significant on many levels.
“My late mother — Rita (née Bellevue) Bashaw — was born in Vernon in 1922, and she commented shortly before her passing in 2014 at age 92 that ‘you can never go wrong with a piece of dirt.’
“And this past February 1 would have been my dear friend Lori Poirier’s 58th birthday. She was also a longtime Vernon resident, and both of their financial bequests contributed in part to this project, so this was about ensuring their memories were honoured.”
Newton said the project really began in 2015 when Ken Hildebrandt of Vernon’s Hildebrandt Homes completed a new home build in 2016 and also received Silver Finalist, 2017 Keystone Awards for Best Single Detached Home. That led to his referral to Towns and Heritage Stone Paving & Landscaping for the complex landscaping project.
“Andi and his crew were sensitive to the reasons behind this project, with unwavering obligation to and guarantee of work excellence and it was a unique and special opportunity to transform a weed-infested, quail nursery and deer feeding lot into a sustainable landscape while meeting all the criteria of the Keystone Category,” said Newton.
But she laughs as she remembers the definitive moment that she calls the real reason Towns earned the Gold Award.
“A very early July morning at 6:04 a.m., one of the main feed lines to the BioHarmony septic field was gushing water and spraying dirt — I got a message to Andi and he responded by 6:22 a.m. in person with his magic tool box and by 6:28 a.m., the line was fixed with all of the sprayers working in unison.
“This is a solid example of loyalty to clients, project excellence and finding the landscaping groove,” said Newton, explaining that ‘in the groove’ is a sailing term when a sailboat is perfect bow into the wind, the sails are precisely trimmed, even-keeled and it’s in the groove.”
Newton’s home also earned recognition at last year’s Keystone Awards when CK Design Kitchen and Bath Cabinetry — also a referral from Hildebrandt — was recognized as a Silver Finalist for Best Kitchen Under $30,000.
All of this year’s 2018 Keystone Gold Winners can be viewed on the CHBACI website.
